L's Visit
by 3waypetal
Summary: L hasn't visited Wammy's House in four years... and Near is quite upset with him.


Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Death Note.

Near woke up earlier than he usually did. He could hear the vacuum going from the hallway and clatters and bangs coming from the kitchen. Near shut his eyes, the sounds could only mean one thing: L was visiting.

His mouth turned into a frown as he sat up slowly and slid off his white sheets languidly, like syrup coming out of the bottle. He landed on the hard wooden floor with a soft plunk and opened his emotionless eyes. Methodically, he crawled to the closet in the far corner of his room and opened it up, revealing hundreds of varieties of toys. Blue soldiers with plastic rifles and transformers with missing arms littered the closet floor.

Without blinking, Near carefully chose a blank white puzzle with thousands of miniscule little pieces. He took the puzzle out and closed the door. Quietly, he crawled to the middle of his room on the floor and emptied the puzzle onto the wood. The shards of the puzzle pieces clattered to the floor, all jumbled up and knotted into a complicated mess.

Near's right hand reached up to twirl a snow colored lock around his pale finger as he started to flip the white puzzle pieces over, making sure they were right side up.

The sun was starting to come up now and filter through Near's thin white shades. Near could still hear the vacuuming going on, farther away this time. Slowly, piece by piece, Near started putting the blank puzzle back together.

The process became advanced as the puzzle got more completed, one-fourth, one-third, one-half, it started to take shape. Near had hardly moved since the process had began, just the spinning movement in his hair never seemed to cease. Finally, only one piece was left.

Near put in the final piece, completing his puzzle, before staring blankly at the white accumulated pieces. Now there were different sounds. Sounds of excited whispering and nervous twitters. Sounds of the staff frantically trying to make all of Wammy's House spotless and perfect.

Mello's boastful voice ringing throughout the hallway, going on and on about how he was going to be L's successor no matter what it took, even if it meant crushing Near in the process or perhaps _hopefully_ crushing Near in the process.

Near made no indication that he even seemed to hear these noises. Instead, he just lifted his puzzle up, watching all the tiny white puzzle pieces fall from his hands and clatter to the floor.

He started the process over again, twirling his hair and flipping the pieces right side up. Twirl, flip, twirl, flip, it seemed to never end. Amazingly, it did end, and once it did, Near started to put together the puzzle once again. The puzzle started forming under Near's precise hands, one-fourth, one-half, complete.

Near studied his white puzzle piece blankly again, letting the new sounds drift into his ears. Shouts of joy, loud laughter, and cries of attention rang in his ear-drums. Piece by piece, he took apart his puzzle, until it resembled a jumbled mass of confusion once again.

The process started again as Near continued to twirl his hair indifferently. Slowly, the noise went down as he completed the complex puzzle for the third time. He started working on the puzzle for a fourth time, ignoring his door opening.

He did not look as L entered his room and closed the door. He added a blank white puzzle piece to the top left corner. He did not look as L studied him calculatingly before walking over to him. He added another blank piece to the bottom right. He did not look when L crouched down beside him, lifted the only puzzle piece remaining, and completed the puzzle by adding the one final piece.

He did not look as L gripped his upper arms and pulled him into his lap. He did not look when L pulled his own hand from his hair and replaced it with his own, threading the white curls gently. Near's whisper came out wispy.

"You haven't visited in four years." L did not respond, just continued to stroke his hair.

"You didn't come when A died." No answers, but more strokes.

"You didn't come when I turned six, or seven, or eight."

"I know," L said, continuing the stroking.

"You said you wouldn't be gone long."

"I lied." Two words, it took just two words to break Near's heart.

"I only lie to the people I care must about," L continued.

"That doesn't make any sense." A lengthy pause drifted around the room.

"It will someday," L said mysteriously. Near squirmed on L's lap, he could feel L's heart beating through his chest, thump, thump, thump. It proved he was alive, alive and breathing and _so_ _real _that Near wanted to cry_._

"You don't care about me," he said brokenly, searching for some kind of answer.

"That's a lie."

Near thought quietly for a few minutes.

"You only lie to the people you care must about," Near quoted L's words back at him.

L smiled and Near began to finally understand what it truly meant to be L. And it became clear that he wasn't sure he wanted to be L after all, because that would mean the real one wouldn't exist anymore, and Near didn't think he could live with that.

A/N: Just a quickie of L and Near. Revised because of bad grammar and a few added words. :P Please review, don't just favorite, but thanks to all who have!


End file.
